The Blotter June 23 2009

BIG DAY WITH BJ: A man said he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint one morning – and they were forced to get in a blue van and held in Piedmont Park until almost 11 p.m., when the man escaped. He said the kidnappers still had his wife – and he was able to escape because the alleged kidnappers, BJ and another guy, slapped him and got distracted when a police car drove by.
An officer asked, “What did the kidnappers want?” The man said he didn’t know, but they made them sit on this blanket all day with ants crawling around.
The officer asked the man if he could describe the weapon. “[He] said there were so many guns around and so many people,” the officer wrote. “I asked [him] how many kidnappers there were and he said two.”
The officer asked him to describe the gun of the man who forced them into the van. “He didn’t have a gun,” the man replied. The officer reminded the man that he had said they were taken at gunpoint. “I did see a gun,” the man said. “The other man had a gun tucked into his pants and he held up his shirt so we could see it.”
The officer asked the man if he knew the kidnappers and he said no, he’d never seen them before. Then, police broadcast a description of the man’s wife.
The officer wrote, “I asked [the man] again what happened and he advised, ‘BJ took me around with him all day to collect money for drugs and introduced me to his uncle.’” The officer reminded the man that he had said that he and his wife were held all day in the park, and he said he didn’t know the kidnappers. The man reportedly said he tried to tell BJ he had the wrong person but BJ drove him around trying to find money to pay him back.
Around midnight, police found the man’s wife – unharmed – on Baker Street. The wife said they owed BJ money and BJ told her to sit down until her husband returned. A police detective arrived and interviewed the couple. According to the police report, the man admitted that he bought some drugs on credit four or five days ago and didn’t have $20 to pay BJ. “He further said he did not want to press charges against BJ, only the other guy for slapping him.”

MEET OFFICER SMARTYPANTS: An officer reported seeing a teenager with his hand inside his shirt, walking across Warren Street, without using a crosswalk. When the teen spotted the officer, he reportedly started walking faster. Apparently, the teen was standing behind a red SUV when the officer found him. “I told him to step out were I could see him,” the officer wrote. “I could see a bouge in his waste [sic] band.” The teen denied having any weapons on him. “I told [him] to keep his hands were I could see them,” the officer wrote. “[The teen] started to move his hands toward his waste band.” The officer lifted up the teen’s shirt and found a loaded revolver in the his waistband. The 18-year-old said he bought the gun because he lives in a bad area. The officer charged the teen with carrying a concealed weapon – and took him to jail.

REVENGE, SOUTHERN STYLE: On Little John Trail, a man said his house was vandalized. A man said he went out of town for a week – and when he returned, his air conditioner wasn’t working. An officer checked the air conditioning unit and discovered that “someone had cut the electrical wire that connected the unit to the house.” The man suspects his neighbor cut the wires, based on past disputes with the neighbor. The man had a bill showing a repair cost of $170.

SERIOUSLY? A 48-year-old Wisconsin woman said she went to a bank on Camp Creek Parkway – and while she was inside, someone broke into her rental car and stole her laptop computer and some jewelry worth almost $500,000. An officer wrote, “[The woman] stated that she was transporting the jewelry for her brother, who is a jeweler in Virginia, and that the jewelry was owned by a man who lives in Florida but met her in Atlanta.” The woman said she doesn’t know the name of the man who owns the jewelry.

BRASS IN POCKET: An officer dealt with an alleged burglary call at a warehouse used by the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management on Peyton Road. The manager said the city uses the warehouse to store tools and equipment. The manager noticed an empty wooden crate – and earlier, the crate was full of brass fittings. The manager estimated that 296 fittings worth $43 apiece were taken from the crate. (The alleged theft totals $12,728.) There were no signs of forced entry at the warehouse, the officer noted. “However, there was a large pre-existing hole on the rear wall of the building that may have been used to gain entry.” The warehouse doesn’t have surveillance cameras, “however there is a locked chain fence, which surrounds the location, which was also undamaged.”
According to the warehouse manager, the Department of Watershed Management was also conducting an internal investigation.

KEEPING ABREAST OF THE SITUATION: A 25-year-old man said he left a bar on Peachtree Road, when a blond woman in a white car pulled up and asked if he wanted a ride. (It was about 2 a.m.) The man said he got in the car with the woman, who has blond dreads and a tattoo of a rose or some type of flower on her left breast. He said the woman took him to an ATM in Buckhead and he got some money. He said at some point, the woman started kissing his neck – and he believes that’s when she took his ATM card. He said the woman dropped him off at his home and he went to sleep – and the next day, almost $300 was missing from his account. (As faithful Blotter readers may recall, a woman with a flower/rose tattoo on her breast was allegedly involved in a similar scam a few weeks ago. Guys, you’ve been warned. Think with your brain, not your … well, you get the point.)

Items in the Blotter are taken from actual Atlanta police reports. The Blotter Diva compiles them and puts them into her own words.